Christ is God’s Gift to You…
Do You Have a Gift to Give Too?
In light of how many things I have to write and all the things you have read and hear this week I am going to make this month’s article a bit shorter. In fact, I will begin with a very simple question (a simple question to ask but I’m betting NOT a simple question to answer). That question would be… “What are you giving the world for Christmas this year?”
Indeed, often at this time of the year, in my sermons, I find myself challenging us all to be a bit more open to and hopeful for a miracle to come this Christmas .. a bit more open to and hopeful for real change to happen this year in this season. All of which would be truly amazing if that kind of insidious and disruptive kind of hopefulness really did take root in us. What would be even better of course, is if we all also remembered that the surest way for those hopes & dreams to be realized and for that change to come is if we ourselves step up… if we ourselves begin to do something to work for those changes we want and hopes we have.
And so again I ask… “What are you going to give the world for Christmas this year.” As in… in what way are you going to put your shoulder to the work of making our world better? In what way can you see yourself being the change you want to see? In what way can you give yourself to the world that will share hope and seed love in others?
It doesn’t really take a lot. You neither have to be that amazing nor that powerful. To begin with… every change of direction begins with what actually seems like only a tiny step off the beaten path. And where that new path takes you can be amazing by itself. That and… we do remember that the promise of God is whatever we undertake in His name… whatever we pray for and reach for as a gifting of ourselves to the world… He will guide and will bless.
So as we all get lost in the wrapping and unwrapping of all those gifts under your tree this year, let us all also take a moment to remember what it could mean to give of ourselves. Let us also strive to take on a few little things that might touch, and love, and even heal the world in (what seems to us) to be only “little” ways. Because you know… I think those little steps… those little things… do have a way of snowballing into changes bigger than we thought possible.
For now, let me wish you all the greatest blessings and joy of this season. And may the gift of God becoming flesh in Christ inspire you to give flesh to your hopes and dream as well.
Merry, Merry Christmas … Many, many Blessings for the season…
And a very very Happy New Year!
-- Pastor Stewart
- December 18/19
